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You might have seen the ads, either in the mail or in a newspaper ad. Online banks are vying for your deposits.

They offer higher rates and the ease of banking over the Internet. ING, Citibank and HSBC are among the best-known banks to offer online savings accounts. MetLife Bank, which is affiliated with the insurance giant, aggressively ran ads in the Greater Cincinnati market last summer.

While the impact of online savings account providers on the local banking market hasn't been too pronounced yet, local bankers are aware of the new and growing form of competition.

Anytime a bank is offering 4.5 percent to 5 percent on savings accounts, the traditional banks stand up and take notice.

But local deposits keep growing at Integra, Brown said. So he doesn't think the rise of online alternatives has impacted his bank, which has two Florence branches, a Covington commercial lending office and a pending deal to buy West Chester-based Peoples Community Bancorp Inc.

MetLife hit the Cincinnati market in June with an ad campaign touting its 5 percent introductory money market rates. True, it took a $25,000 minimum deposit, and rates dropped back to the current rate after six months. But even now, as of Dec. 12, MetLife's standard money market rate is 4.15 percent, well above the national average of 3.74 percent.

"We try to go into a market and be one of the top five in rates," said Melissa Macerato, assistant vice president of reverse mortgages and direct sales at MetLife Bank, based in Bridgewater, N.J.

MetLife targeted Greater Cincinnati as one of just five markets nationally for its online savings account marketing push this year, Macerato said

But most of the reason it chose Cincinnati was tied to marketing expense, rather than dynamics of the local banking market, Macerato said. Ad costs are relatively low for a market of this size, she said, and MetLife has a strong local agency presence. It also has a reverse mortgage specialist based here and rolled out that product locally, too.

"Cincinnati has been one of the better-responding markets," Macerato said.

She didn't provide numbers to back that up. But, she added, Greater Cincinnati's demographics, such as population over age 35, percent of people owning a home and amount of money people have to save, all point to a successful market for money-market dollars.

She figures most of MetLife's business is likely coming from the traditional brick-and-mortar banks.

"Some of the numbers they've raised are pretty amazing," said Mike Prescott, president of Huntington National Bank's Southern Ohio/Northern Kentucky region.

He's heard that as many as one in five savings accounts are now opened online.

Still, Brown said he doesn't think a significant amount of deposits has moved to national online accounts.

The local numbers back that up. Deposits at traditional banks in Greater Cincinnati grew by 5 percent in the year ended June 30, according to annual Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data. Those bank deposits totaled $43 billion as of June 30.

Midwestern banks, and particularly those in Greater Cincinnati, are less likely to be affected by the online savings accounts' deposit rates than banks in the rest of the country are, Prescott said. The national online banks pay the same rate across the country, so markets that pay low deposit rates could get hit worse.

"Banks in the Midwest have the lowest margins," Prescott said.

Things are even worse for banks in Greater Cincinnati.

"Competition is much more stiff here," he said. "We're already paying high deposit rates in Cincinnati. The consumer definitely benefits from the fact there are 87 banks here."

But he figures some local money is flowing to online accounts.

Integra's Brown looks at the new competition as a learning experience. He has asked some employees to open accounts with online banks in order to find out how the process works.

"I want to learn how customers can open an account solely via online," Brown said.

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